Spring-hinge



(Model.)

F. W. HOE-FER. SPRING HINGE.

' No. 416,460. Patented Deo. 3, 1889'.

limlfmn i UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE.

FREDERICK IV. IIOEFER, OF- FREEPORT, ILLINOIS.

SPRING-HINGE.

SPECIFICATION forming part of Letters Patent No. 416,460, dated December 3, 1889.

- Application tiled March ,1889. Serial No. 302,010. (Model.)

To all whoml t may concern:

Be it known that I, FREDERICK lV. I-IOEFER, a resident of Freeport, in the county of Stephenson and State of Illinois, have invented certain new and useful Improvements in Spring-Hin ges; and I do hereby declare the following to be a full, clear, and exact description of the invention, such as will enable others skilled in the art to which it pertains to make and use the same.

The invention is fully illustrated in the ac companying drawings, in which- Figure l is a plan of the hinge, -showing its outer face. Fig. 2 shows the opposite face or that side that rests against the door when the hinge is in position. Fig. 3 is a section on the line o@ 0c, Fig. l. Fig. 4. is a section on the line -y y, Fig. l, the hinge being fully opened.

Like many other hinges of this class this hinge has the pintle at some distance from the surface of the door upon which it is placed, and a spring draws the leaves together between the pintle-line and such surface, and thus normally tends to close the door. As in other hinges, also, 'when the hinge is opened the line of strain swings outward and at last crosses the axis or pintle-line, 'and the hinge is then held open. In so far as these results are concerned, therefore, the hinge presents no novelty; but the disposition of the spring or springs with reference to the leaves and the means for rendering the hinge both right and left hand are thought novel and to secure certain advantages over all other hinges of this class.

The hinge has two pivotally-united leaves in general similar to those usually employed in hinges of this class, each having at each end an ear that, with the corresponding ear of the opposite leaf, forms a pair of contiguous ears, and the ears of one leaf being both above or both below those of the opposite leaf. The corresponding ears that form the two pairs belong to opposite leaves, and the inner leaf of each pair is provided with a short gudgeon or pintle B, that lies in a latorally-open bearing in the contiguous ear.

There are in many hinges certain advann tages in having the upper ears of each pair upon the same leaf; but evidently if that leaf be secured to the jamb the other leaf is un supported, or, in otherwords, the hinge is not both right and left hand, and double sets of patterns are required and double stocks must be carried by the dealers. To obviate this difficulty while retaining such an arrangement of ears each leaf is provided with an integrally-formed ear or disk intermediate between the other two ears upon the same leaf, and these are so placed that when the leaves are united they rest one upon the other in the axis of the hinge with their contact-surfaces preferably perpendicular to the pintleline. These being so placed receive all or a part of the weight of t-he door, according as the one or the other leaf is made fast to t-he jamb. This construction also permits making both pintle-bearings open, and thus dispenses entirely with cores in the casting. The leaves are identical in form and may be cast from one pattern. Each has at one end a nearlysemicylindrical hood E, closed at each end and open below, and connecting this and the nearest ear is a bar or bail G, formed integrally with both. In the axis of the hood is a springarbor II, mounted in open bearings in the hoods end walls. About the arbor is coiled a spring J, whose outer end is secured to the supporting-leaf in any suitable manner-as by passing its endl through an aperture in the wall of the hood-and whose inner end is an arm K. The latter passes obliquely across beneath the disks to the other side of the hinge-axis, bends upward, and terminates in a lateral hook I., resting like a saddle upon the rod G of the opposite leaf. As the hinge opens the swinging leaf carries the springarms around the disks and swings them,with reference to the spring-arbor, through a distance equal at the hooks L to the distance of the rods below the pintle-line plus their distance from that line, and, as this corresponds to only a few degrees torsion of the coil, the

latter may be very short without danger of IOO Another advantage of the construction set forth is that no links are required to connect the spring with the rod upon the opposite leaf. It is also plain that, as the springs act independently, the hinge is as fully operative, though with only one-half the force, when one spring is broken or when one is omitted in the manufacture; but in the latter ease the one spring is made heavier. The hoods are placed so far out of line that they may not interfere when the hinge is opened one hundred and eighty degrees, as in Fig. 4.

That I claim isl. In a spring-hinge, the combination of two leaves pivotally united at opposite ends by separate pint-les and having in the pivotal line intermediate between the end connections two disks resting the one upon the other and rigidly supported, respectively, from the two leaves, whereby the end connections may be relieved from part or all the weight of the door supported by the hinge.

2. rlhe combination, with two hin geleaves pivotally connected at opposite ends, of a rod or pin' rigidly fixed upon one of the leaves, and a spring-coil mounted at right angles to the hinge-axis upon the other leaf and having one end secured thereto and its other end in engagement with said rod upon the opposite leaf, substantially as set forth.

3. The combination,\vith two suitably-conuected hinge-leaves, each provided with a spring-eovering hood without the horizontal plane of the other hood, of two rods fixed, respectively, upon the leaves at one side of the 3 5 hinge-axis, and a spring-coil mounted in each hood with its axial line transverse to the pintle-line and having one of its ends engaging the leaf upon which the spring is mounted and the other end engaging the rod upon the op- 4o posite leaf.

4.. The combination, with the leaves A A', having at each end integrally-formed ears and the short pintle projecting from one ear of each pair and lying in an open bearing in 45 the contiguous ear, of the disks formed integrally with said leaves, projecting inwardly therefrom, and resting one upon the other in the axial line of the hinge, the rods formed integrally with the leaves at one side of the 5o pintle line, the hoods for concealing the springs, the arbors mounted in said hoods, and the springs coiled about said arbors and each having one of its ends secured to the leaf upon which it is mounted and the other in 55 engagement with the rod upon the opposite leaf, substantially as set forth.

In testimony whereof I have signed this specification in the presence of two subscribing witnesses.

FREDERICK lV. HOEFER. `Witnesses:

LEONARD SrosKorF, '1). A. MoL'rEn. 

